Fini!

Merino Lace Socks, from Interweave Knits, Summer 2003, knit with Fleece Artist yarn.



I really love them and have been wearing them since yesterday. Believe it or not, shortly after I finished my first sock, I was wandering through blog-land when lo and behold, I hit an entire post about pooling. Specifically, about 'pooling' and socks. With these, I know there's pooling going on but I really like the effect. Now I do know what it means though.

In terms of sock-knitting, I've also stumbled across several posts regarding the mysterious 'left-side hole' that always appears when picking up stitches along the gusset. I have a trick that I use and it works very well. It goes like this: After picking up all my stitches I begin my first round of decreases. I knit to the last three stitches of needle 1, K2 together, then knit 1. I knit across needle 2. When I get to needle 3, BEFORE doing anything, I take my crochet hook and pick up 1 extra stitch from between needles 2 and 3, and place it at the beginning of needle 3*. Then, rather than, K1, SSK, I SSK, SSK. From there I carry on as usual. It always works and you can't tell. I haven't had a dreaded gusset hole in three years.

*You may have noticed that the yarn is always loose in that one spot.

Now, look at what my secret pal sent me!



Thank you!!! Thank you!!!

The note cards have a pair of knitting needles attached to the hat. Naturally, I think they'll be the perfect gift cards to go with knitted gifts.

The skeins of beautiful Noro fell in line with something I'd meant to post with these socks. You see, I was feeling guilty about being a yarn snob. I'm really not a snobby person (er, well, unless it comes to cheese). I live in the bush three to four months a year where I spend my days covered in mud. I sleep in a tent and eat things that fall in the dirt. But, when glancing at my blog the other day, I noticed I have an awful lot of projects that use Fleece Artist yarns. It's as though I'm not willing to give any other yarn a try, don't even bother to give them a once over or rub them against my cheek to see how soft they are. But it's not true and the reason is this; my LYS carries lots of yummy and beautiful yarns, many other types such as Noro and Manos and Opal, but somehow, Fleece Artist always winds up being the most cost efficient. (Okay wait. I'm not sure I just helped my case. I just wrote about snubbing other equally snobby yarns...) The point of my long-winded paragraph is this - I am a Noro virgin. I'm very excited (in the same manner that I see so many other knitters when they buy their first Noro... they should have a Noro-Along for us) and plotting what to do with it. I know Noro is supposed to be wonderful when felted, and I'm almost tempted to weave with it and felt. Or knit with it. Or weave with it.

Or let my cats keep smelling it... Either my secret pal also has cats, or it's the Noro, I don't know!